Gears API Blog

Keep up to date on Gears

We're happy to announce that we've updated Gears to version 0.2. All users have been updated, so you can begin developing applications for the new version right now.

Gears 0.2 includes:

New modules: HttpRequest and Timer. The main reason for these modules was that developers told us they wanted to make HTTP requests and create timers inside Gears workers. But these modules can also be used outside of workers. For example, one advantage to using the Gears HttpRequest module instead of normal XMLHttpRequest is that Gears HttpRequest module addresses a common problem making comet-style applications work on IE.

Improved support for handling errors in workers. This is an area where we received a lot of good feedback. Now, errors from workers are automatically bubbled up to the main page by default so that you can see them in the error console or in Firebug. Or, you can handle them explicitly with the new onerror event.

Ability to load workers from a URL, even cross-domain URLs. We've long wanted the ability to load workers from a URL. We've also wanted to provide a way for different domains to communicate safely. This is useful in the case of mashups, or when an application spans multiple domains. The new createWorkerFromUrl API solves both these problems.

For more details about the additions and improvements in 0.2, see our API history page.

Questions? Flames? We're excited to see what you can do with these new features. Join the mailing list and let us know.